Birmingham Justice and Peace Commission Newsletter Message from the Chair

Transcription

1 Birmingham Justice and Peace Commission Newsletter Issue 39 Summer 2018 Message from the Chair Dear friends, Hope you are all having the chance to enjoy the early summer now it has finally arrived. It's a joy to see the freshness and beauty of God's creation. It might spur us to begin to think how we can do something to celebrate the season of Creation in the autumn and look at our response to Laudato Sii. Many resources will be available soon. You might also think of arranging a walk, short or long as part of Sharing the Journey initiative supported by Pope Francis. Cafod has resources helping us to pray and reflect on the plight of the refugees and migrants among us and in different parts of the world. They have walked and travelled in danger and hardship seeking freedom, security and a better future for themselves and their families. Locally here in Rugby we are planning a walk at Draycott Water on Sunday 1st July in the afternoon. With all good wishes for your work for justice and peace. Fr Gerard Murray (Chair) In this issue: Dates for your diary: Welcome by Fr Gerry (Chair): page 1 Our J&P Assembly 2018: page 2 Romero Week March 2018: page 2 CAFOD Share the Journey: page 3 Mary s Meals: page 4 Peacebuilding Conference: page 5 Who picked my tea?: page 6 Global Healing: page 6 Everyone 4 Love Walk & Family Fun Day: page 7 RISING Global Peace Forum: page 8 Adoremus Liverpool Parallel Programme: page 9 Forgiveness is greater than any evil: page 10 Migrant Voice: Page 10 National Justice and Peace Network Annual Conference Friday 20 th Sunday 22 nd July 2018 Justice and Peace Assembly St Peter s Solihull Saturday 13th October 2018 Main speaker Nicholas Hanrahan Community Outreach Officer Jesuit Refugee Service UK Annual Justice and Peace Lenten Retreat will take place at Selly Park Convent, Selly Park. Birmingham B29 7LL on 16 th March

2 Romero Week March 2018 Ruben Zamora, recently retired as El Salvador s Ambassador to the UN in New York and currently a Special Advisor to the Foreign Minister, spent an exhausting but successful week as the Trust s guest from 14th to 21st March. He gave the Address at the Romero Anniversary Service in SMITF on Saturday March 17th - the text is on the website Our J&P Assembly 2018 This year s Justice and Peace Assembly will take place on Saturday 13th October Last year we all enjoyed a very informative talks by Pat Gaffney, General Secretary of Pax Christi UK and James Trewby, Columbans on J&P Education. This year will be our 14th Assembly and our main speaker will be Nicholas Hanrahan Community Outreach Officer Jesuit Refugee Service UK. We would like you in your groups to start thinking about preparing talks/ meetings on the subject of Refugees and Migrants in your area. Then bring with you your thoughts and questions on the subject. Instead of having a second speaker we are thinking about how we can come together with our own questions and thoughts on Refugees and Migrants and how as people interested in Justice and Peace we can help these people. Look forward to hearing from you about your thoughts on this idea. His very first presentation was to a Reception for MPs and Peers at Portcullis House, Westminster, arranged to mark the 40th anniversary of British parliamentarians nominating Romero for the Nobel Peace Prize. The next day in Cardiff he spoke at a lunch meeting for Members of the Welsh Assembly and guests. That same evening, he addressed a public meeting in Cardiff which formed part of a South Wales Romero Festival, organised by Michael Woodward, which also included a showing of the Romero film, 'The Claim', and a performance of the Rise Theatre play, 'Romero Heartbeat of El Salvador'. On the evenings that followed, Ruben spoke to meetings in Cambridge, Liverpool and Leeds. CAFOD organised a webinar for him to speak from Romero House to an audience of about 50 at their offices around the country. The Easter edition of the Tablet carried a substantial interview with Ruben done by Peter Stanford. It can be seen at 2

3 Share the Journey: a global campaign Inspired by Pope Francis special concern for migrants and refugees, CAFOD is inviting us to join the Share the Journey campaign. Alongside Catholics worldwide, CAFOD is calling on governments to agree on two global compacts which place the human dignity of people on the move at their heart. I was a stranger and you made me welcome : at the start of his papacy, Pope Francis visited the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean, where thousands of migrants have drowned at sea. Ever since then, the Holy Father has shown the Church s concern for this crisis. In 2017, he released a message to nation states, urging them to welcome, protect, promote and integrate migrants and refugees. This document outlines 20 action points all governments must deliver through the global compacts. It calls for concrete actions, such as rights for people on the move to work and support their families, and special protection for child refugees. Through our televisions and newspapers we may feel that we are broadly familiar with this situation. The reality is that war, persecution, natural disaster and poverty force millions of people from their homes. Most come from poor countries and seek safety in poor countries nearby. We cannot turn away from these people. These are human beings, with hopes, fears, desires and stories to share, just like each one of us. The Church worldwide is committed to sharing the journey of people on the move. World leaders must be moved to do the same as they negotiate two global agreements on refugees and migration between now and autumn In response, CAFOD has launched a petition to the UK Prime Minister, urging Britain to ensure the human dignity of migrants and refugees is at the heart of the global compacts. Parishes and schools will join the campaign in Indeed, walking the walk of the Share the Journey campaign has already started. For example, on Saturday 28 April over 100 people braved the rain in Birmingham to Share the Journey in solidarity with refugees and asylum seekers. Among those gathered was the Archbishop of Birmingham, the Very Reverend Bernard Longley, as well as refugees and asylum seekers who spoke at each of the prayerstops that were made. On Saturday 16 June there will be a similar walk in Stoke-on-Trent, led by Bishop David McGough. However, the walks don t have to be long or complicated. They can be very simple, such as a walk after Mass round the church car park, or round a school playground. They can be as long or short as people want to make them it s the total distance walked by everyone who participates that is counted. For further information about the campaign and to find out more about how to organise a walk go to cafod.org.uk/campaign/share-the-journey Let us also consider the background to these stories. More people are on the move now than ever before. Every minute, 20 people around the world are newly displaced; half of the world s refugees are children, and thousands take flight without the protection of parents or other family members. Three out of four of of the world s refugees are hosted by developing countries. Returning to the inspiration from Pope Francis, later this year, in September, world leaders will agree two new global compacts (or agreements) at the United Nations: one on refugees and one on migration. Pope Francis has spoken of this as a unique opportunity for Catholics worldwide to put pressure on governments. The Vatican hopes Pope Francis intervention will galvanise action in the same way that the encyclical Laudato Si influenced the Paris climate agreement in 3

4 Mary s Meals A Simple Solution to World Hunger What is Mary s Meals? It is a grass roots, nondenominational charity that respects and reaches out to people of all faiths and none. A global movement of people from all around, the world who contribute their money, goods, skills, time or prayer to help the world s poorest communities. It is a simple idea that works. By providing a daily meal in a place of Education, Mary s Meals attracts chronically poor children to school where they can be fed and gain a basic education that could provide an escape route from poverty, it gives HOPE. The global Mary s Meals campaign was born in 2002 when Magnus Mac Farlane- Barrow visited Malawi during a famine and met a mother dying from AIDS. When he asked her eldest son what his dreams were in life, he replied To have enough food to eat and to go to school one day. Mary s Meals is now feeding more than one million children across 14 countries every school day. Mary s Meals operates its International Outreach from a shed in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands, well supported by passionate, motivated workers and volunteers. Its commitment is to keep overhead costs low, at least 93% of donations are spent directly on the charities work, that is 93p in the 1. At the moment it costs to feed a child for a school year. Local communities own and run Mary s Meals in the project countries where it operates and when available meals are made with locally produced food, this supports the local economy. Why the name Mary s Meals? Mary s Meals is named after Mary the mother of Jesus. Mary is a highly respected figure in the two largest world religions, she is a woman that billions of people around the world are familiar with, and can relate to. In her lifetime, she experienced the struggle of a parent to bring up a child in poverty, while ensuring that her child was nurtured and could develop into a healthy individual. Mary s Meals is sustained by the people at the heart of it, their conviction, their decisions and hard work. Mary is a powerfully evocative symbol for the work of Mary s Meals. She has an especially profound connection to those millions of people, living with dignity, courage and hope amidst present poverty. Magnus said Those of us entrusted to leading this work of Mary s Meals, will always strive to be good stewards of every gift entrusted to us, treating each one with deep respect and gratitude. There are many ways you can find out more about Mary s Meals. Read The Shed That Fed A Million Children by Magnus McFarlane - Barrow Watch Visit Generation Hope, a most inspiring DVD (on the web site) of some of the young people who have benefitted from Mary s Meals and now have Hope for the Future Gift Bags of Love using the Backpack Project see ukfundraising@marysmeals.org.uk Support by Regular giving to the charity Contact us if you would like a Presentation on Mary s Meals Rob & Catherine Carr Mary s Meals Ambassadors Ph: robertcarr131@btinternet.com Many thanks to the Mary s Meals charity who provided the information to be used in this article. 4

5 Rotary Club International Peacebuilding Conference On Saturday 24 th February, two students from Cardinal Newman, myself and Aimee Morley, both attended the International Peacebuilding Conference run by the Rotary Club at the Ricoh Arena. The UK is one of six countries where these conferences are taking place and this highlights what an excellent opportunity this was for the city, especially as we are the City of Peace and Reconciliation. The day started with the introduction of guest speakers who were attending the event and the international president had even travelled from Australia to speak to us all. The Lord Mayor of Coventry and Canon Sarah Hills from Coventry Cathedral then spoke about the Coventry Blitz and how the city united to come back stronger from what was such a terrible event. A Rotarian from Warsaw, Poland also spoke and compared the similarities from how his own city faced conflict and bombing as well. A youth competition winner also spoke on the subject of Lad Culture and how boys can be pressured into excessive drinking and other anti-social activities. A breakout session was then held based on the previous speakers and the young people all discussed what it can mean to be a lad and how peace can be developed within society, especially between young people. All the attendees then had the amazing opportunity to listen to a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr Shirin Ebadi. It was fascinating to listen to her experiences being held unfairly as a political prisoner in Iran and how she has since fought for peace for all Iranians. We also listened to other interesting speakers, hearing of their work in third world countries and how they have helped to improve the life of others, with one speaker having helped in a refugee camp. We then got the chance to have a question and answer session with Dr Ebadi and this was very interesting as we were able to discover more experiences that she has been through and what work she hopes to do today. After this, we listened to some final speakers on the topic of peacefulness and the eradication of Polio, something that we are very close to achieving. This was very useful as it ties in with our GCSE History about the development of public health, showing that these events can link into many things, not just peace. Overall, this was a fantastic event to attend and I would like to thank Mr Davies and Mrs Byrne for attending the event with us. I would recommend this to anyone who gets the opportunity to attend again as it is highly informative and also a lot of fun. Olivia Moynihan, Cardinal Newman School Coventry Olivia Moynihan and Aimee Morley Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr Shirin Ebadi It is in the shelter of each other that the people live : A conference to explore the meaning of home in the context of being a church of the poor. Friday 20 Sunday 22 July 2018 The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire. 5

6 A FREE FILM RESOURCE There is nothing like a nice cup of tea... But have you ever thought about where your tea comes from? Many popular British blends include tea from Assam in India, where the people who picked it - most of them women - are paid poverty wages and live in appalling conditions. The 'Big 6' British tea brands - PG Tips, Twinings, Typhoo, Yorkshire Tea, Tetley and Clipper - are well aware about this but aren't doing enough to challenge it. Global Healing is a film-based event for parishes, groups and individuals. It will inform, challenge and equip people to engage with Pope Francis vital call to Care For Our Common Home. Bonus material will be available to create a short course (ideal as an Advent course). The film clips are available as free downloads but DVD copies can be inexpensively purchased if needed. There are also downloadable posters, fliers, newsletter info and leaders guides with numerous next step links for deeper reflection and action. We won't let them get away with this anymore. Please add your voice by asking the brands: Who picked my tea? To make your message more powerful, add a sentence on why this issue matters to you. Your will go to all six brands' customer service teams, but if you get a response from the brands, please let us know: campaign@traidcraft.org. To find out more about the campaign, visit: Living our vocation to be protectors of God s handiwork is essential; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience. All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation. The Season of Creation September 1st to October 4th Beginning with the World Day of Prayer, Christian churches and faith communities around the globe are praying, celebrating and taking action for creation. 6

7 At WFRC, we are very passionate about revisiting the word LOVE. Love has lost its true meaning and significance. Love should not hurt said Karyne Tazi, Executive Director of The Women & Families Resource Centre We have seen the devastating impact that this hideous crime [of domestic violence] has on the lives of everyone involved. This event may be light hearted in its nature, but behind it are very serious messages- Let s break the silence on domestic violence. No one should condone abuse! Let s use love to stamp out abuse! Everyone deserves to be loved!. We invite you to join us in promoting awareness about domestic violence and to support our Everyone 4 Love initiative by committing to join us on the day with your family, friends & colleagues. Find out more about us and how you can get involved on our website or find us on Facebook by typing Everyone 4 Love. Love is the answer! About The Women & Families Resource Centre We are a registered charity based in Wolverhampton which supports, empowers and advocates for women by actively encouraging them to become self-reliant by empowering them to identify their own needs, make their own choices and create their own solutions. Our services, such as counselling and emotional support, are free to any woman or child, regardless of race, culture or religion who is facing barriers or problems. For more information, please visit Everyone 4 Love Walk and Family Fun Day By Laura Stanley Wolverhampton, West Midlands The Women & Families Resource Centre (WFRC) is pleased to announce the return of the Everyone 4 Love Walk & Family Fun Day that takes place on Saturday, 21st July 2018 at the Wolverhampton West Park, from 10.30am 16.00pm. Following the success of last year s event, this free and fantastic event promises to be even bigger and better. It brings together men, women and children who will commit to walk at least, 1 mile or at most, 3 Laps around the park. Contact The Women & Families Resource Centre First & Second Floors, 3 Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, WV3 0TZ Phone: or There will be activities for the whole family including sack races, egg and spoon races, tug of war, bouncy castle, meet and greet mascots, football tournament, live music, love challenges, Zumba dance, performances, and lots of fun. wrfcinfo@gmail.com The Everyone for Love initiative uses love to combat abuse. We want to stamp out abuse by actively educating families to cultivate habits of showing and sharing love. It seeks to encourage local residents to pledge never to commit, condone or remain silent about domestic violence. To bring communities to the forefront of dialogue, so they can alter social consciousness and change their actions. Domestic Violence is a crime and unfortunately many people suffer from it silently. 7

8 RISING Global Peace Forum invites you to RISING Britain: Foreign Policy After Brexit Meet the speakers Date: Thursday 14 June 2018 Time: 12pm 3pm Venue: Coventry, St. Mary s Guildhall About the event Our future economic prosperity, both as a successful trading nation and as The Midlands Engine, depends on there being peace. If there s not peace, the only businesses that can operate profitably are those in the defence and security industry. Yet in all discussions about Brexit and our ability to negotiate new trade deals around the world, the one issue that we ve completely ignored is the question of how will Britain help ensure that there is international peace so businesses can trade successfully. Rt Hon Michael Portillo Rt Hon Michael Portillo is a British Broadcaster and former Cabinet Minister, serving as Secretary of State for Defence from With less than 12 months until the UK is due to leave the EU, it s now time to ask the unique question, How can Britain s post-brexit foreign policy act as a force for international peace? Our history, our language and our culture give us the opportunity and the responsibility to make a unique and inspiring contribution to global peace. We must seize both if we are to prosper in the decades ahead. It s right too that this question should be asked in Coventry, the UK s only City of Peace and Reconciliation. Coventry is a city with a long history of looking outwards and working innovatively with people around the world. For many centuries, long before RISING became established as an internationally-recognised peace forum and before the city successfully won UK City of Culture 2021 status, Coventry has welcomed strangers and has been prepared to have peaceful dialogue and trade with people from other cultures. To help us consider this question, we invite you to lunch on 14 June 2018 at the prestigious St Mary s Guildhall in Coventry to hear the thoughts of British broadcaster and former cabinet member Rt Hon Michael Portillo on the subject. With his European ancestry, his political experience as a former Secretary of State for Defence and, more recently, as a welltravelled broadcaster, Michael is in a unique position to have insight on this subject. Judy Dempsey Judy Dempsey is a senior fellow at the foreign policy thinktank Carnegie Europe and also editor in chief of the Strategic Europe blog. She will be responding to Mr Portillo s view of Britain s future role on the international stage. Members of the Coventry Deanery Justice and Peace group plan to distribute flyers about stopping the Arms Trade to delegates as they go into this event. They will be outside of St. Mary s Guild Hall from 11am. 8

9 Adoremus Liverpool Parallel Programme September 7 8 This aims to support the event in the Echo Arena by exploring a wide understanding of Eucharist and providing events for those who couldn t get tickets for the main event. Below is some information about just of a few of the things that will be going on during these couple of days. Welcoming the stranger: Irish immigration through to modern day asylum seekers and refugees. Friday and Saturday 12-9pm, St Anthony of Egypt Church, Scotland Road, Liverpool L5 5BD Broken TV series: a discussion with Director Jimmy McGovern. Friday and Saturday 11am - 3:30pm, St Francis Xavier Church, Salisbury Street, Liverpool L3 8DR Environment: On the altar of the world St Philip Neri Church, 30 Catharine Street, Liverpool L8 7NL will host two events: The Northern Dioceses Environmental Network, Together for the Common Good (T4CG) and NJPN will explore a sacramental theology of creation. Talks, discussion, hospitality and family-friendly activities. Saturday 12-6pm Reconciliation and the Eucharist with Pax Christi Pax Christi, the UK section of the international Catholic Peace organisation, the Peace of Christ, is a movement based on the gospel and inspired by faith. This event will look at reconciliation, forgiveness, peace and the Eucharist. Beginning and ending with meditation on the Icon of Reconciliation and using prayer and stories, we will explore the vision of a world where people can live in peace, without fear of violence in any form. The day includes T4CG s perspective on reconciliation, and an intergenerational panel of women discussing peace-making in families, in our country and globally. Saturday 12-6pm National Justice and Peace Network AGM And a Friday event for Archdiocese of Liverpool secondary school pupils at Notre Dame College. Speakers and facilitators will work with young people around peace issues, exploring a vision of a world where people can live in peace, without fear of violence in any form. Includes input from Pax Christi, the Columbans and others. Advanced booking required. Contact: s.atherton@rcaol.co.uk Notre Dame College, Great Homer St, Liverpool L5 5AF Friday 10am-2pm Reconciliation, Adoration, Masses and Services at the Metropolitan Cathedral Metropolitan Cathedral, Mount Pleasant L3 5TQ Friday - Reconciliation 6-7pm Adoration 4 6pm Choral Evening prayer 6.15pm with Mass at 7 Saturday - Reconciliation 11am-noon & 3:30 4:30pm Adoration :30am & 6 7pm Morning Prayer 8am, Mass 8:30am Blessed Sacrament Chapel, Vigil Mass 6:30pm Crypt Sunday - Masses 8:30am; 10am Crypt Sunday pilgrimage Masses (by ticket only) 9:30am, 11:30am Eucharistic Procession in the streets around the Cathedral 1pm (open to the public) 9

10 Forgiveness is greater than any evil Justice and Peace Retreat Day Fr Dries SJ led us at our annual Lenten Retreat Day, who asked the question: What was the temptation that Jesus had in the desert? We were asked to reflect on the three temptations of Christ, using the gospel accounts, and to see if we had any comparable experiences in our own lives. For example, if we could turn stones into bread, we could solve the poverty problem, so why not? What we came to realise was that Jesus was being tempted to avoid doing his Father s will, having been sent by the Holy Spirit at his baptism to do just that, his baptism being a sign of his willingness to identify with the transgressors, and that pleased the Father: This is my son, the beloved; my favour rests on you. For us, in justice and peace, it posed the question, are we tempted to avoid doing what we have discerned to be our mission, what we consider we have been called to do, or even to give up in the face of adversity or obstacles, even when it causes us pain, rejection or isolation, as it did for Jesus. Fr Dries also invited us to pray with pictures and he used images of the temptation of Christ from different genre over the centuries. One picture made us smile, of the Black Sisters in Mechelen of 1714, an early selfie, as all the sisters are looking at us and none of them looking at the Holy Trinity! A lesson for us all? MiFriendly Cities The MiFriendly Cities project was formally launched in Coventry Cathedral on Tuesday June 5 th with a participative audience of well over 100 people. The EU's Urban Innovative Actions fund has given Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry 4m ( 3.5m) for schemes over the next 3 years. Those behind it said it would help migrants use their skills to benefit the wider community. Sunairah Miraj, the Programme Delivery Manager from Coventry City Council, said the three-year scheme would create new work opportunities and improve people's sense of belonging. Among schemes planned are: 70,000 to support new social enterprises a pop up furniture factory in Coventry and Wolverhampton to train people to upcycle furniture to go into 100 home makeovers for people in need employment information sessions in deprived areas of each city training for more than 100 refugees and migrants as 'citizen journalists' Know your rights, legal healthchecks for migrants 115 schools will be visited to help people to ensure they have the right papers Refugee and migrant volunteers were helping to run the event with catering by refugee social enterprise café, Arabian Bites. Kris Pears (Coventry Deanery J&P Group) Articles for these Newsletters are always accepted with gratitude since we feel it is crucially important for Justice and Peace Groups around the diocese to publicise their activities for the benefit of us all, and to liaise with each other to share thoughts and ideas, and especially Best Practice. The Birmingham Diocese Justice and Peace Commission For information on the NJPN J&P calendar and links to J&P organisations, as well as the J&P Commission, also for downloads from the J&P Resource Pack and much more access our website: Birmingham If you have a contribution you would like included in the Autum 2018 newsletter please send it by for consideration to: The Administrator, J&P Commission. bham.jandp@gmail.com November 2018 Edition: Last date for copy 1st October 2018 The views expressed in this newsletter are the view of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Birmingham Justice and Peace Commission or the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham. 10